Abstract
Trained to a smaller number of elements versus a larger one and then tested faced with the larger number and twice the smaller one, one set on the left and the other on the right of the larger number, the ants essentially reacted to the smaller number located on the left of the larger one. Trained to a larger number of elements versus a smaller one and then tested faced with the smaller number and twice the larger one, one set on the left and the other on the right of the smaller number, the ants went preferentially to the larger number located on the right of the smaller one. They similarly reacted when trained to zero versus 2 elements (mostly reacting to the zero element located on the left of the 2 elements), and when trained to 2 elements versus zero element (going essentially to the 2 elements located on the right of the zero element). Thus, the ants responded mostly to the left smaller and the right larger number of elements, and this only when a larger and a smaller respectively number of element was set in the middle. In the absence of the latter, the ants went equally to the left and the right numbers of elements. The ants arrange thus mentally the numbers (amounts) on a scale, a number line, locating the smaller quantities on the left and the larger ones on the right, as do humans and the vertebrates which have already been studied as for this numerosity characteristic. Also, the ants’ accuracy of response decreases with increasing numbers of elements.
Highlights
The workers of the ant Myrmica sabuleti Meinert 1861 can distinguish different numbers of elements, can perform what looks to an addition and a subtraction when the results of these operations are concretely presented, the ants responding to what they clearly saw during training
Do ants have any number representation allowing them having the here above enumerated numerosity capabilities, or do they have these capabilities without possessing any mental representation of numbers or quantities? Such a question has been answered for humans
The latter possess a number representation (Dehaene, Dehaene-Lamberts, & Cohen, 1998), a cerebral property detailed in Dehaene (2011)
Summary
The workers of the ant Myrmica sabuleti Meinert 1861 can distinguish different numbers of elements, can perform what looks to an addition and a subtraction when the results of these operations are concretely presented, the ants responding to what they clearly saw during training. These workers have the notion of zero based on visual as well as on olfactory perception, and locate the zero at its correct place, i.e. at the start of an increasing series of elements and at the end of a decreasing series (respectively: Cammaerts, 2008; Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2019c, d, f, 2019 a, b, e). After having explained our methods and reported our results, we discuss the latter and somewhat extend our finding
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